It Consumes

Most arena shooters want you to see everything at once — a screen full of enemies, projectiles, and readable telegraphs. It Consumes does the opposite. You fight in near-total darkness, and the only way to see anything at all is to pulse your own heartbeat outward as a wave of light, then survive in the gap before it fades again. It launched less than a day before this review was researched, which makes for the smallest, freshest sample this review has worked with yet: sixteen reviews, every single one of them positive. This review read all sixteen in full — small enough to cover completely rather than lean on a percentage — and the praise underneath that 100% is specific enough to take seriously.

A hook that keeps drawing the same comparison

The reference point reviewers reach for most is a telling one for the genre. "It reminds me of Devil Daggers but a bit more rogue-like," reads one detailed review, going on to praise the amount of built-in variety: "offers different versions for all the mechanics you'll use in the arena so you can use what you like the most... or master them all." A shorter review agrees in almost the same breath: "Reminds me of Devil Daggers but cooler with more stuff happening." That's a specific, credible lineage to invoke — Devil Daggers is a well-regarded, exacting arena shooter with a loyal following — and reviewers aren't using it loosely; they're pointing at real structural similarities while calling out what It Consumes does differently.

The darkness mechanic itself draws detailed, considered praise rather than one-line reactions. "The darkness mechanic is a great twist that makes every run feel tense and exciting," reads one review, crediting the build-customisation system as "easily the best part" of the run structure. Another goes further into how the system actually works: "pulsing the light isn't the only way to detect enemies — you can hear them as they approach and inflicting them with shock or poison also makes them visible in the dark. Vibes: immaculate, gameplay: enjoyable, sound: eerie." That's a reviewer describing a genuinely layered detection system, not just "it's dark and spooky."

Sound comes up again and again

Several reviewers single out audio specifically, which is a notable pattern for a visually-driven genre. "I love the emphasis on audio!" reads one early review, while another frames the whole experience through sound: "I close my eyes now and all I can see is enemies charging at me" — a short review, but a pointed one about how much the game's soundscape sticks with a player after a session. Combined with the footsteps-and-growls detection system described above, the pattern across this small sample is consistent: this is a game reviewers feel was designed to be listened to as much as looked at, which tracks with a design built around darkness as a core mechanic rather than an aesthetic choice.

What's worth knowing about a one-day-old release

Because every review here was posted within roughly 24 hours of launch, this review checked what the developer had already done in response. Two patches landed in that same window: one shipping the same evening as launch, fixing overlapping unlock-progress UI and a stalled-progress bug for players carrying over a demo save, plus a temporary accessibility fix for the photosensitivity warning screen not accepting gamepad input; a second the following morning, fixing leaderboard scores sometimes failing to submit. Neither patch responds to a complaint in this review's sample directly — there isn't a negative review yet to respond to — but it's a concrete, dated sign of a developer actively supporting the game in its first hours rather than shipping and walking away.

One reviewer's experience is worth flagging plainly for a specific audience: the store page lists Windows only, with no Mac or Linux support, but one reviewer reports it "ran well on Linux/Bazzite," almost certainly via Proton compatibility rather than native support. That's promising but not a guarantee, and Linux players considering it should treat official platform support as Windows-only until Sublexical says otherwise.

Price and value

Pricing draws only positive comment in this sample. "Can't believe it only costs $10!" reads one review, essentially matching the discounted NZ$11.99 checked for this review. Another calls it "not too expensive so definitely worth the price in my opinion," specifically citing the amount of modifier and mode variety on offer — roguelite, classic, and endless modes, plus a custom-games editor letting players build their own rule sets, all present at launch rather than promised for later.

Final verdict

It Consumes is a genuinely fresh idea executed with enough polish that its first sixteen reviewers agree completely, and reading through all of them rather than trusting the headline number, the praise holds up under scrutiny — specific comparisons to a respected genre touchstone, a detection system with real mechanical depth, and sound design reviewers keep bringing up unprompted. The obvious caveat is timing: this is a one-day-old release, and a sample this small and this fresh can't say much about how the game holds up once the initial wave of enthusiasm passes.

Recommended with real confidence for arena-shooter and roguelite fans looking for something that isn't just another reskin, with the honest caveat that "brand new and unanimously loved" is a snapshot, not a guarantee — worth checking back on the review count in a few weeks.

Players who want that same sense of a small, distinctive idea executed with real care, backed by a world built to reward mastery over months rather than a single run, may also want to look at Wanderer.